vallalku said

What do people think about Tea Trekker ?

I am new to the world of tea and like a lot of people here, can’t help myself from purchasing lots of tea samples to figure out what I like. My wife definitely gives me the look when a shipment arrives :)

I have so far bought teas from Adagio, Rishi and Art of tea. I am now considering Verdant and Tea trekker as well.

One thing I like about Tea Trekker is it seems like a honest business. They always mention the source and which season the teas were picked. The facts are laid out clear.

Any of you bought teas from Tea trekker ? How good are their teas ? It seems highly rated teas in Steepster are from Verdant mostly.

Any thoughts?

25 Replies
Ellen said

Ive been to Tea Trekker multiple times and they’re amazing and totally love what they do. Their tea is some of the best I’ve had =) I would definitely recommend buying from them. They taste it all personally before selling! The Shui Xian is amazing for the price.

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Any of you bought teas from Tea trekker? Yes! You can look my cupboard to see which teas of their I have purchased from them (unfortunately most are all drunk up), but in short I bought a few Chinese green, a few Indian black, and a yellow tea.

How good are their teas? They are some of the best teas I have had (buying from roughly over 20 retailers). All but one were on sale (as they were at the limit of their shelf life), and the 2011 spring green tea was was one of the best green teas I have had.

I have exchanged a few brief emails with them regarding general tea questions, and I have found Mary Lou to be very responsive.

They have published a number of books on tea which are some of the most thorough, up-to-date and comprehensive books on tea I have found (they are available on their website).

Here is a more detailed review of my experience buying from their online business: http://steepster.com/places/2820-tea-trekker-online-northampton-massachusetts

Oh, and I have a few green teas and one black Tea from Verdant, and they are even higher quality than the teas I have had from Tea Trekker, but Verdant’s teas are considerably more expensive (in general). I personally highly recommend both of them (here are a few reviews of Verdant Tea: http://steepster.com/places/2886-verdant-tea-online-minneapolis-minnesota).

Happy shopping!

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I’ve had good experiences with both tea trekker and verdant. I’ve never ordered from tea trekker since I live close enough to their physical store. But the teas are good all around!

How awesome to have such a good teahouse close to you! I’m close to good tea, true, but there’s no place to go and drink it.

vallalku said

@Spoonvonstup exactly

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Great customer service from Tea Trekker!
Let us know what you purchase:)

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vallalku said

Thanks everyone for your wonderful feedback. I am going to buy Darjeeling teas from Tea trekker.

I read somewhere that Darjeeling, Castleton garden teas, 2nd flush are among the very best Darjeeling teas. Tea trekker has 2010 harvest of that tea. Not sure if the taste of tea would have degraded significantly now. So I am thinking of trying both Castleton 2nd flush and Jungpana estate 2nd flush (which is 2011 harvest). I am glad they list the year of the harvest since I don’t want to form an opinion based on tasting 2010 harvest.

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Geoffrey said

Hi Vallalku. I’ve ordered from Tea Trekker as recently as this past December, and I can vouch that the teas I got from them were definitely very good. I ordered their aged Mi Lan Dancong oolong and a sample of this curious Wuyi Dancong hybrid tea they found. They included two additional samples with my order, both of which I was very fond of. One of them was the Shui Xian that Ellen mentioned, and I second what she says about it. The other one I wrote about in my most recent tasting note, which you can read about if you’re curious.

Given the knowledge conveyed by the Heiss couple in their books, I was persuaded to trust that they know what good quality tea is and care about providing just that in their store. The teas they sent me reinforced that trust. I enjoyed their teas quite a bit, and having had the privilege to taste some really amazing teas in my life has left me with very high standards (I work for Verdant now, by the way). So far, my assessment is that, for quality unblended whole-leaf teas, Tea Trekker is probably one of the better vendors in the Western market. I would order from them again, most likely selections that interest me outside of the teas we’re already sourcing ourselves.

In any case, I hope you find them worthwhile!

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I’m a huge fan of verdant, but I also have gotten some great teas and teaware from tea trekker. I’ve found that the sections are quite different, with verdant being more of a boutique. I’d highly recommend both for different purposes.

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khstrobel said

Trekker is the best- I’ve been buying from them for years. Great couple and I love going to their store so that I can ask them in person about each tea- it is always an education.

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Verdant Green Tea is nice tea – pricier than some. But the flavors vary a LOT from year to year, at least for the ones I buy (mostly Laoshan and Longjing). Some years it is fabulous, and other years just ok. Sometimes the teas vary within the same year, too.

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Well, I got some teas from Tea Trekker and they are indeed very good. I also got some from In Pursuit of Tea which were high quality but not as much to my liking stylistically. I also got some from Yunnan Sourcing, and they turned out to be the best of all. In fact, they were the best quality for the price I have found so far. The problem with other sources like Verdant and TeaVivre is the character and quality varies a lot. I am going to continue to buy from Yunnan Sourcing and Tea Trekker to see if the quality holds from year to year. So far these two are truly excellent sources of tea.
(Note: Also got teas from Seven Cups and they were not very good AT ALL. Customer service was good, but teas were not. )

obritten said

All my experiences with seven cups have been exceptional. I’ve tried teas from tons of vendors and I think Seven Cups has some of the highest quality teas for a US vendor. A little pricey but their shi feng dragonwell is fantastic. I’m surprised you thought their teas were bad. I can’t recommend them enough

LOL – I have been buying teas from all over the world for over a decade at the rate of $8000 – $10000 USD/ a year. Glad you like them, but I am comparing that particular batch of teas to some of the best teas exported from China. I suppose it is possible that all the ones I got from them are not representative of their normal offering, but none of them seemed very good in that particular order.
Another great resource is AmazingGreenTeas – these guys have an in with some high-end tea gardens for some of their teas, especially their Longjing.

obritten said

Huh-idk if I somehow came accross as challenging your “knowledge” or experience in tea but that was certainly not my intention. I merely attempted to offer my experiences with some of Seven Cups’ teas. They’re certainly not the greatest in the world but all the teas I’ve tried have been greatly above a normal US-based vendor’s quality.

Mike

jamin said

Thanks for the info. Been enjoying YS which makes TT seem expensive. I’ll consider TT for nonChina teas.

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